THREE VOLUMES.

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And the days o' lang syne?"

VOL. II.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, STRAND,

AND W. BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH.

M. DCCC. XXV.

AMBITION.

CHAPTER XV.

THE TETE-A-TETE.-THE SONG.

"They name thee before me-
A knell to mine ear-

A shudder comes o'er me,
Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I know thee,
Who knew thee too well;
Long-long shall I rue thee,
Too deeply to tell!

In secret we met,

In silence I grieve

That thy heart could forget,

Thy spirit deceive;
If I should meet thee

After long years,

How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears!"

ON the following morning the ladies in Wimpole-street received a visit from the baronet and his sister. Lady Williams met them with VOL. II.

the utmost cordiality and politeness; she was determined on giving Mabel every possible opportunity of engaging the attention of Sir Richard, and, ere he had been many weeks in town, he was on the most intimate footing in her ladyship's family.

The gay life which Lady Williams led, pleased Mabel at first by its novelty; but when that wore away, the same continued round of visits, the same whirl of dissipation, and oftrepeated methods of killing time, lost their powers of attraction also; she looked upon the world, all was heartless, vain and frivolous; she looked within herself, cheerless, and solitary were her feelings; and though she was not miserable, there was a void in her bosom which required to be filled up, ere she could taste real happiness, Excepting an occasional letter from Lucy Jones, she held no rational intercourse with any one, save Miss Mac-Alister and her brother; she loved Helen tenderly, and the more she knew of the baronet the more she admired him ; indeed he seemed to be a being of himself, for